PROGRESS TO THE SOUTH OF THE EMPIRE. 
365 
unnecessary on my part; but now I left my munificent royal host 
behind me ; and must carry, with myself, those means of com¬ 
fort, which, when present, he had so abundantly provided me. 
Hence it occupied me some time, to collect and assort my tra¬ 
velling train and its appendages, my servants, horses, mules, &c. 
The Shah did me the honour to appoint my mehmandar ; and 
furnished him with a paper called a rackam, or firman, for my 
use; empowering the possessor to be provided with a certain 
quantity of provisions, for himself and suite, and forage for his 
cattle, throughout the whole country subject to His Majesty’s 
dominion. This imperial document is stamped with the royal 
seal, besides the similar impression of nine or ten of the princi¬ 
pal ministers of state. Indeed, all these great signatures are 
as indispensable to the authority of the smallest written order, 
for the most trifling public contribution, as to the power of the 
most comprehensive decree. This, at first, may appear a very 
troublesome formality ; but the protection it affords, in these 
countries, to the persons and properties of the lower classes, 
who might, otherwise, be ground to absolute poverty by endless 
wanton exactions, renders it a precautionary measure worthy 
the most scrupulous respect. 
Having completed all preliminaries to the prosecution of my 
tour to the south of the empire ; and taken leave of the court, 
and of my European and Asiatic friends at Teheran; I set forth 
on Wednesday, the 18th of May, 1818. My party consisted of 
nine persons, including their leader: namely, myself; the 
King’s mehmandar; Sedak Beg, the secretary and interpreter, 
Abbas Mirza had appointed to attend me during my sojourn in 
Persia; my two Russian servants ; a Georgian, I had hired at 
Tiflis ; a couple of Persian grooms ; and one muleteer. These 
